Since starting the job I currently have, I have been doubted on just about every move I’ve made and every turn I’ve taken.  I came into the position with 30 years of retail experience, 40 years of sewing and crafting experience and also experience as a supervisor, department head and manager from previous positions so being treated as if I knew almost nothing didn’t go over as well as anyone had hoped.  The position I was hired for was in management but it was almost a year before I received my official online training that would give me the basic knowledge of how this particular company prefers to do their business.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t threaten to quit at least a thousand times but I’m still there and so are the remnants of how I was made to feel day in and day out over the course of several months when my employment began.  It wasn’t easy and whether it will ever prove to be a worthwhile struggle remains a mystery.

I go to work with a positive attitude and attempt to put my best foot forward every day.  It works most of the time but the other day it’s safe to say it didn’t.  I was cutting some fabric for a couple of women when another woman standing behind them said, “Are these books on sale?”  I said, “No, they aren’t.  If they were, there would be a sale sign on the rack.”  Then she said, “Well, what do these dots on them mean?”  I said, “Nothing, in our store colored dots mean absolutely nothing.”  It wasn’t 3 seconds later that another employee walked up and the customer asked her the very same questions she had just asked me.  Much to her amazement she received the very same answers.  Most of the time I can leave well enough alone but for some reason, my “well enough alone” ability had become disabled and I said to the customers in front of me….”Well, I guess she didn’t believe me.”

The woman didn’t hear what I said and she had no way of knowing that over the past year nearly every bit of who I am has been doubted….nearly everything except for the fact that I was trustworthy.  I received a set of keys for the store I am working for immediately and not once has my integrity been questioned.  To some it may not seem like much but to me, it’s the reason I have been able to pick myself up and dust myself off and get right back in there day after day.  I’m not sure if it will ever amount to anything more than a bad paying job but for some reason I’m willing to stay and find out.